Balanced News: Tunisia seeks to reassure migrants after Saied remarks

Tunisia’s top diplomat sought to “reassure” sub-Saharan African migrants on Monday, in an interview, days after comments by President Kais Saied drew accusations of racism. Saied called for “urgent measures” against “hordes” of sub-Saharan migrants, whom he accused, without evidence, of causing a wave of crime and representing a plot to change the country’s demographic make-up. Rights groups have since reported a spike in vigilante violence including stabbings of black Africans, while migrants say they have been thrown out of their dwellings en masse and handed over to “mob justice”. The African Union voiced its “deep shock and concern” at his comments, urging member states to “refrain from racialised hate speech that could bring people to harm”. In an interview on Monday, Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar said Saied’s comments had been tendentiously interpreted. “Several days have now passed and now we need to keep a cool